Never an easy life
by S0ulEat3R-333
Summary: As evil forces from another Dimension secretly plot to takeover the whole of Halkeginia, the Ancient Gods that protect the balance of the universe do the thing they're best at. Send someone to do the job.


Ah, the joy's of writing…

Now what to write…

Oh, got it...

A War was about to start...

A sword, a pure white broadsword, broad even by the broadest terms, with a gold insignia of a dragon wrapping all around the blade, lay embedded in the dirt, in front of a Knight in full plate armor the same hue as his blade...

and who was sprawled in front of a beautiful, healthy tree with eerily glowing branches, a jug of beer clutched in his right hand, his equally Bright Gold Shield in the other.

He had been tasked to protect the bridge, from a patrol of anything from enemy spies, to patrols of Scourge forces, to Mercenary Heroes that were believed to try and sneak in through the backwater bridge he was posted in.

He sighed deeply as he thought about what happened earlier.

He had been sleeping on top of a tree, one he had landed on by accident-namely, tossed up there by a certain Stone Giant by accident and getting knocked out cold. When he woke up, he found himself in what looked to be a nest, a Very Big nest on the top of a huge tree.

By the time he got down and returned to Base, his name was already inscribed on the Resurrection Stone, with most of the warriors from his platoon waiting and wondering why he hadn't returned yet from 'above'.

"Maybe all his lives are used up" suggested one,

"Nah, Elune and the Dragons are probably bickering over where he should go" spoke up another, and was immediately joined by the other troops giving their own version of what 'happened'. Meanwhile he could see a humanoid shaped rock formation in the corner of camp, hunched down and shaking at irregular intervals.

'Poor guy' he thought, even though he was the one who put him in that position, as he continued limping out of the forest, using a hidden hunters trail, now used by most of the Mercenary Heroes and Generals. He shouted out to his comrades, expecting them to cheer up when they saw him, but then he forgot a few things.

1- They were fighting the Scourge, hence limping along silently to get to potential victims was a common tactic of the Undead.

2- His 'Buddy'/partner etc had probably came back to base, in shock and blubbering about how the Knight 'flew' off through the trees and disappeared.

3- He had a Town Portal Scroll on him, yet he didn't use it when he could've cut through all that travel time. Suspicious *Forgotten soon after he fell from the tree and got knocked out cold again... the branches could only take so much weight*

So, needless to say, when he emerged from the woods, he was immediately met with untrusting stares and swords pointed at him, since nearly anyone who didn't come back with the aid of the Stone, came back as one of the Scourge. It took a full-irritating hour to get them all to believe that he was alive and not resurrected by the Lich King to spy on them and then bestow his Unholy Fury upon them with hordes of blood-thirsty Scourge forces he summoned 'magically'.

After finally understanding their 'stupid' mistake they finally warmed up to him, which began by parading him around their section of the camp, after they let him down, they all agreed to pooling their money to buy the finest barrels of rum and beer currently in the *strangely too well-stocked* Camp merchants inventory.

A large pile of gold, silver, and any costly or tradeable trinkets were exchanged for over 20 casks of the best Dwarf beers and strongest Human rums *currently in stock* The flood-gates of Neptulon seemed to open that evening except it was a flood of potent alcohols, and when the ones they had bought seemed to be almost finished, the General-class who had joined pooled their money and bought a different, better though costlier type.

The Knight briefly remembered the end of a long round of drinking against... someone fuzzy with a lot of black and white hair all over his body. Due to his different constitution, he had never lost... until that night.

He briefly remembered his 8th cup, he was just starting to fell warm, 15th cup, his hands were starting to heat up and he started seeing in shades of light red, after the 21st cup, his vision was starting to change from shade of red, to green, to blue, and sometimes in rainbow hues, but he still kept going. He remembered a weird point in their competition, when he he a gust of air (or tornado in his state), hit him, then he started seeing his opponent in 3's, but they all wore different colored clothes.

One was ember red, another was electric blue, and the third was earth brown, but they all spoke together, which made the sound reverberate 12 times in his head

"Do you want'sa drink 'hic' more?" they all asked him together, to which he agreed.

At the 30 cup mark, he felt like he was flying, and everyone was screaming all around him, while he briefly noticed 12 pandas rolling around on the ground, laughing. He was woken up the next morning by a... courier that seemed to have poked his head through his bedding, but closer inspection revealed that he had somehow flown up one of the larger trees and trampled down the the top until it became flat enough for him to sleep upon, and that was where the harried courier had found him that morning to call him to the Strategics and Planning Tent/Commanders Tent.

He was about to march straight in, before the courier pulled him back and told him to clean up before reporting, to which he simply stared at...

his lieutenant, which was why he didn't complain when she dragged him to the river to wash up a bit. She left him at the edge to wash up, and respectfully walked behind a tree to wait for the General to wash up.

*Splash* The lieutenant looked back and, couldn't find the Captain at all. When she reached the river bank where she left him, she could see bubbles coming upto the surface near the place she hear the splash.

"General!" she shouted, and upon doing so, the bubbles coming upto the river intensified Looking at it closer, she got closer to it as she watched it intently, then a lightbug lit in her head as she put together the few things that just happened recently. She was about to dive in with a shout of General, just as a giant shadow emerged from the surface of the lake.

"Damn Anxiety-inducing General" was all she could mumble out before being knocked away by th huge bulk of her Generals other form.

'The hangover had passed' he thought, before changing back, and getting the full force of it into knocked back into his body suddenly.

"General, we **have** to get to the Meeting soon" grumbled his lieutenant, to which he replied with a helmet-less grin which she could see clearly.

(Senseless Omake - She was about to smile back at him, when she noticed something strange about his... "OMG Captain some of your teeth are missing!" She suddenly screamed out. To which he was still giving his now bloody mouthed grin, with his blood slowly dripping down to the ground. ***HOLY CRAAPPP!***The resulting roar was heard throughout Azeroth, from the prisons of the Dark Gods in between realities, to the Lich Kings throne, causing great unrest, and sparking rumors and prophecies of the World Eater come to devour their world.)

When he arrived, he was told that the War-Council had received reports of a high concentration of the Scourge on the Northern Hills, and as such, had sent out several trained owls to verify their numbers.

What they found out was disturbing. Nearly a full battalion, if they could be called that, of ghouls, backed by the foul magic's of necromancers and supported by a battery of explosive-rotting-meat catapulting wagons, but not even one General or Mercenary Hero.

Not very good numbers, but except for the meat wagons, there were no shock-troops or hard-hitters, hence the deployment of all secondary guards and new recruits to the Northern Hills for combat experience, the sum total of which was almost as much as the enemy forces.

AND the reason why he was one of only four people guarding the middle path, between one of the many Ever-Moonlit Forests of the Elves and a small backwater bridge across Silvia River frequently used by the General-class to flank their enemies when needed.

Which was currently under control of the Sentinel, and they planned to keep it that way.

But the Commanders were suspicious, they knew the Scourge had been on the losing side of head-on combat, so they started employing crude tactics, nothing compared to live tactics displayed by living, breathing, thinking tacticians, but they were slowly starting to get better.

Which was why he thought it was absurd that only him and his lieutenant and some recruits were stationed there,if the enemy could possibly send a large Scourge invasion force instead of leading his troops to charge along the path he was guarding. He knew he could hold against whatever the Scourge threw at him, but only for so long… although, as long as he had time to heal, he could go on for days, maybe they were expecting a horde of weak but numerous foes, irritating, but he had bought a 'Special' weapon to help him against odds.

'Or maybe they don't trust me yet' he added as an afterthought.

He immediately dismissed the thought, he was a soldier, and he was paid to obey orders, not question them or think about them and even though he appeared lazy at times, he could still do his job right.

and also because he knew the real reason for his new post. Having been drunk enough to last the whole next day and till the morning of the next, he had simply and stupidly stood at attention and nodded to everything the Commanders had said, which led to this and barely any extra troops as well.

*Whoosh*

He lazily brought up bright-golden his shield to cover his face, he soon heard sound of several arrows glancing harmlessly off his shield and onto the to the side.'About time' a small part of his mind thought.

Why didn't the others beyond the bridge stop them, or at least warn me though, my Lieutenant shouldn't take so much time to take care of a small patrol, he thought as he lowered his shield and got up to take a look at what he would be facing… and quickly jumped behind the closest tree, just in time as over a hundred arrows embedded themselves where he was lying down moments ago.

'Oh, that's why' he thought, then reached for the jug of beer he had placed there when he arrived there, to protect it, before jumping away, behind another tree as a huge cleaver tore though the arrow-filled trunk of the tree he was hiding behind.

"Ahhhh, fresh meat" the lumpy Abomination said as it hobbled towards him, its body jiggling from its movement and, he looked closely and saw his lieutenants sharp dagger-like brooch embedded in the jaw of the fleshy giant. The Brooch _he _gave his now-Lieutenant on her Promotion to Lieutenant. His eyes narrowed as he made up his mind to retrieving that brooch before frying the monstrosity.

Though somewhat intelligent enough to speak in broken languages, it was not smart enough to understand that to attack the pissed-off lone Knight stationed at an important checkpoint of an even more important region… was just asking for a death wish.

The abomination charged at him swinging one of its large cleavers at him, to which the knight simply lifted his shield, not even bothering to brace himself for the shock, ***CLAANG***, which made his armor vibrate and left his ears ringing. But it also broke the blade of the cleaver used by the Abomination. It looked stupidly at its favorite weapon, now reduced to a useless stump, during which time the knight took the opportunity to run upto the thing, and pulled back his shield arm, sending it right into its weak spot, the area where the stitches were. The thing keeled over as its torn body lost its balance, which was the perfect opportunity for the knight to try and gently pry it from the things jaws. But the thing was embedded deep into its jaw, he tried pulling harder, to no result as well, in the end, he gripped the things skull in both of his hands and squeezed. There was a creaking sound before its skull gave way with a wet splat.

Having seen the insides of Scourge creations before, the knight didn't really want to look as he pried the brooch from between the cracks in the things jaw he had made himself when there wasn't any to take the brooch out of. He quickly wiped it on the grass, then kept it in his pouch.

He had just kept it back inside and closed it when he saw another Abomination approaching quickly from the bridge, this one had his lieutenants sword embedded in its eye, spraying the surroundings with its filthy reddish-black blood. His right arm moved to unsheathe his sword from his beautiful golden *empty*

It took a moment for his slightly drunken mind to remember that he had stabbed it into the ground front of where he was resting a few moments ago. Damn he thought, then he remembered he still had his rum hanging from his belt.

With a snicker, he ripped one of the bottles from the string connecting it to his belt.

The knight took one last sip of the rum in his bottle before throwing it at the lone Abomination that charged him, and watched as it broke the bottle with a quick slash from one of its smaller arms wielding a scythe, then its contents spilled all over the monster. When it reached him, he pulled back his arm to give it a devastating uppercut, just as he dodged its attack, making the giant lump of meat quiver and knocking it back quite a bit.

Satisfied, he sucked in his breath as he waited to perform a trick he learned from a hairy fellow General-Class the previous night.

He heard the distinctive twang of rusted crossbows and rotten bows as they discharged their deadly projectiles from the other side of the river.

Barely a second later, the Abomination charged him again as well, angry and wishing to prove that it was capable of defeating a tiny human.

' These things don't learn' he thought

This time, it chose the wrong human to attack.

The Knight waited for the right moment before unleashing his attack.

The arrows were almost on top of him.

'Gotta wait… damned undead, move faster' he silently grumbled in his mind.

The Abomination was right in front of him now, pulling up its meaty Axe wielding arm to cleave through him.

From behind it, Davion could see the first of the arrows come into range.

'Now!' He thought as he unleashed the fury of his Dragon Flame on the abomination.

With a roar sounding like it could've come from an adult wyrm, the air trapped in his lungs moved upto his throat, his inner dragon flame molding the air and mixing his current elemental affinity i.e. fire, through ancient dragon magic's, into the his breath.

Upon exiting his mouth, the magic flared, unleashing his element upon the hapless Abomination, igniting the alcohol coating its body and fueled even stronger by the burning of its abundant fats.

The Flame from his maw spread out, reducing the wood of the arrows and crossbow-bolts into cinders, and the metal tips into molten slag.

After a few more seconds of spraying flames to ensure all projectiles had been burned out of the air, he cut off the magic supply to his breath.

To prevent himself from being blinded by the bright flames, he always closed one eye, as, usually when the time came to use it, only his enemies would be in front of him, and any allies in front were always quick to move away after seeing himself start to puff himself up.

He felt a tingling cold sensation, but ignored it as he closed his temporarily blinded left eye and opened the other eye to survey his handiwork…

And was immediately met with a blast of condensed demonic-fire on his face, which, though not dealing much damage, stunned him and threw him off-guard for a few seconds,

Which was all the enemy needed to pump all their destructive spells out at him, but they were still too slow, as he was able to raise his shield to soften the blows a moment before the first bolt hit him.

Needless to say, it still dealt a **Lot** of pain, and nearly sent him back above, even though he could choose to come back, it would take too long to return, by which time the Scourge could've overrun the Base, or at the very least, dealt a lot of damage. Along with that one of his attackers hit him with a Bolt of Frost at the end after the barrage, but with his *special armor* it was like blowing ones breath on a forest-fire, i.e his frozen limbs thawed out within 10 seconds.

But he would still take a long time to heal normally, which was why he discretely used a non-detectable regenerative salve on himself with the last of his strength after the barrage.

He knew he couldn't play dead for too long, but he had to get a reading on their numbers, or at least on who was leading them. He didn't feel too good when he found out.

3 General class war-mages, and several Flesh golems acting as their honor guard, and one of which punted him into the side of the path, and into the river as well.

"Grrrr, lets go soon, I need more blood and souls to sacrifice soon" a distinctive Orc with demonic tinges to it spoke. The Demon Witch known only as Lion, who practiced demonic stream magic, and whom Davion was sure was the one who stunned him.

"Siiiilence orc, plans were made, and if they weren't Followed, what would all that planning and testing of their strengths be for? Truly you are a brutish and disgusting race" Another, more feminine voice said. He knew who it was even before he felt the energy loss induced cold-chill. Krobelus, the Death Prophet.

"Speak those words again, she-witch, I'll Chain that wretched soul of yours to the deepest depths of the Outland" The Orc Demon Witch retorted as he started flaring his magic through his War staff/club, to which the Death Prophet summoned a cloak a dark, soul-sucking bats.

"*Hawwww*, Quit you're bickering and stop slowing down this servant of the Lich King, if you do not want to suffer his Wrath" The Third Assailant warned. He knew from the way of speaking exactly who it was, Kel'Thuzad, the Lich, one of the main pawns of the Lich King, and probably the one who hit him with that extra bolt of frost after their barrage.

The knight lay in wait for an opportunity to attack and defeat as many of the Scourge as possible, and also until enough of his strength returned.

It was a simple plan he thought, too simple to even be called a plan…

'Although, those mines I planted at the pathway sure seem to take a long time to detonate', he thought as he remembered purchasing a barrel-full of goblin mines before setting out for the mission.

He remembered why he bought those, after a long explanation by the goblin team that sold them, two key words registered in his mind. Powerful and Remote-Controlled.

"Sold!", he shouted the moment that registered, as he remembered a bad case of friendly fire and a broken bridge that took a full Moon cycle to repair, which was caused by the explosion from H-E (Highly Explodable) goblin-mines *Somebody* planted. Sadly for the bereaved, the culprit was never found…

Remembering that, and not thinking the consequences of his actions, he pulled out the fuse connected to his left arm, then snapped his fingers, the friction causing enough heat for him to magically manipulate into a small, strong flame and lit the string, and waited...

and waited...

'Wheres the boom?' he thought, still a bit drunk.

Taking a peek at his assailants, he was pleased to find their attention wasn't on him. Leaving him free to deal with why his mines hadn't gone off yet.

He looked at his remote mine detonator box, which was... a plain looking box with the fuse inserted through the side.

It was also a box that was cracked, had holes and with the inner parts peeking out a bit. Any other soldier would have thrown it away in disgust, complaining of cheap Goblin products, but he had been listening to the sales-goblin, and head been perceptive enough to ask how it worked. He was given another hour long explanation, but in the end he understood it so perfectly he thought he would be able to make others.

So he started adjusting his inner fire into his fist, and with skill he had developed during his time of training with the 'Druid'

A tweak of heat here, melting this small piece of wire to send out the signal, and… that's it!

The bombs were armed!

He knew this because a green light in front of him he had taken for a fairy, turned yellow, then red.

A wheezy, child-like voice spoke in his mind "Remember, green-ready, Prime fuse-green mine turns yellow, anything moving within 10 meters-yellow turns red, red to black in 2 seconds, after that…" the goblin added with a dark tone "Lets hope you're FAAAR away, Heheh"

As these words faded, he saw what seemed through a haze in his vision, but just clear enough to see a bright red light disappear… or turn black?

Then the world exploded around him as he felt his body being thrown the blast.

Pain... Lots of it.

He roared in pain as he flew through the air, opening his eyes, he could see the front portion of his armor blackened by soot, and from what he could see, he was being thrown high over the river, downstream, and into the feral territory.

Due to his 'Special' Constitution, he wasn't outright blasted to bits, but pain was still pain.

His body's inner flame quickly started working their magic on him, but he knew that it would take several days for him to heal enough to move around properly. He knew he had to use one of his salves before he became unconscious after landing/hitting the ground.

Numbly, he thought that he had bought 2 salves before going out to for the defend bridge task.

The ground was starting to come up quickly.

He felt around his leather pouch, he had to find it quick.

The ground was getting a lot more detailed now and he briefly imagined himself laying sprawled there, waiting for the moment when his body would start working normally again, which would take a week, and 2 more for him to return to full fighting capacity.

He pulled out the bottle he had been struggling with for so long...bottle?

He thought dumbly as he tore off the cork and drank whatever was inside.

"Ahhh..." he murmured out contentedly.

A sip of strong elvish rum felt good.

'But it wont help my wounds at all', he thought, 'Well, three weeks of forced vacation, here I come' he thought as the ground rushed up to meet him, then,

Darkness...

Well, here's the first of the prologues, which will be broken down into 3 parts how was it? too fast ? not enough/too much details?, we'll get to the FoZ part soon.

Oh, and I mixed the parts of Dota & Wow. Although its a lot less from Dota... Sorry 4 re-editing it so much, I just felt there was something i needed to change.


End file.
